News
Suffolk goes for a Big Quick Read
Suffolk County Council has signed up over 600 people for the Six Book Challenge working through their 44 libraries. These include Skills for Life literacy groups, colleges, readers with visual impairment, adults with learning difficulties, Top Timer groups for 55 plus, Home Library Service reading groups, ESOL and refugee groups, a residential care home and prisons where young offenders and staff are taking part. Seventy-five teenagers at one school have signed up, spurred on by the offer of a prize from the headteacher. And 25 staff at Lowestoft Library are taking the Challenge because they had 'stopped talking about books'.
The first Suffolk County Council employee to have completed their Six Book Challenge is Christine Hancock, Commissioner for Adult Services. Christine completed her challenge by reading a wide selection from the Quick Reads books and rated her enjoyment of taking part as 5 out of 5. She said "I wanted to do this as I'm very keen to encourage my grandchildren with their reading. I hope they will join in with the Summer Reading Challenge this year, so it's important that they see me reading too."
Christine explains: "When I came to sign up I saw the display of Quick Reads - I was really impressed with their variety and as I'm so busy I thought they would be ideal. They are also in a good format for anyone with dyslexia which has relevance for me. The Traitor in the Tower was a fascinating insight - it was so easy to order a beheading in England back then! Dragons' Den made me think about different styles of leadership and communication. The Perfect Murder has an excellent plot and a good ending that I didn't see coming. 101 Ways to get Your Child to Read had some excellent ideas on how to support and encourage both of my grandchildren. Doing the Six Book Challenge has challenged me to read more and I will try to keep the momentum up."
Suffolk Reads co-ordinator Tracy Bose has also set up a Big Quick Read for the county using Bernardine Evaristo's Hello Mum building on the success of a similar exercise with John Boyne's The Dare in 2009. Bernardine is making a couple of visits to Suffolk and local people have recorded individual chapters of her book - see website for the latest news.
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